From CNY Solidarity Coalition:
Next Meeting: Sunday, April 11, 2021, 3-4 PM. Zoom Link to come.
Last Meeting: March 21.
SIRDN (Syracuse Immigrant Refugee Defense Network) approved as a Member Organization of the CNY Solidarity Coalition.
Committee Meetings: Indivisible NY24, Climate Justice, State Legislative Action Team (IONY)
Upcoming Meetings:, 4/25, 5/9, 5/23. 6/6, 6/20. Committee meetings will take place, after announcements, at our second meeting each month: 3/21, 4/25, 5/23, 6/20
Invest in Our New York
Updates: At this time, the budget process is at the “three people in a room” stage. Negotiations will be taking place between the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Governor. (More about the budget process here.)
Here’s a summary of the proposed increases in the one-house budgets: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/ny-state-of-politics/2021/03/15/state-lawmakers-call-for-new-taxes-on-rich-new-yorkers
Please notice that none of these increases affect middle and working class families – only the very wealthiest, who have seen repeated tax cuts at the federal and state level over the last forty years!
Actions: The challenge now is to keep the proposed increases in taxes on millionaires. The Governor, of course, is again saying they are unnecessary: No Need For Cuts Or Taxing Wealthy, Cuomo Budget Director Says in Syracuse.com
Please call and email these people NOW and demand that the tax increases on the wealthiest New Yorkers go into the final budget!
· Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Senate Majority Leader scousins@nysenate.gov 518 -455-2715
· Carl E. Heastie, Speaker of the Assembly speaker@nyassemby.gov – 518-455-3791
· Governor Andrew Cuomo – https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form – 518-474-8390
Next IONY Planning Team Meeting: April 25, at the CNY Solidarity Zoom Meeting at 3 PM. Contact Peter (pmccar1100@gmail.com) or Keller (Keller.shelton@gmail.com)
Agenda: The long term struggle to enact fair taxes in New York
To Learn more:
o https://www.cnysolidarity.org/2021/02/02/invest-in-our-new-york/
o http://investinourny.org (scroll down past the petition to the slideshow, or keep going to the Act Summary)
Articles of the Week:
Coverage of our Invest in Our NY Rally on March 20:
War and Warming: We Can’t Save the Planet Without Taking on the Pentagonby Pat Hynes in the last issue of the Peace Newsletter published pre-Covid (Arch/April 2020), when SPC had expected to bring her to Syracuse to speak. Pat specifically addresses the need for the peace/anti-militarism and climate justice movements must come together because “war and fossil fuels have been fatally codependent since the Second World War… Working together, we must turn the tide on the destructive forces of militarism and the climate and biodiversity crises by seeking enduring peace on earth and enduring peace with earth.”
The Government Just Admitted It Doesn’t Really Try to Collect Rich People’s Taxes Read it in Newsweek
By some estimates, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans manage to avoid paying about a quarter-trillion dollars of owed taxes every single year. Now, new government data show that audits of the super-rich and large corporations have hit a new low, leaving billions of dollars of uncollected taxes at precisely a moment when lawmakers say new revenue is needed to fund infrastructure and climate investments.
EVENTS/ACTIONS CALENDAR:
The Syracuse Center for Peace and Social Justice is accepting applications for their Board of Directors. The Center is a non-profit organization that houses Syracuse Peace Council, Workers Center of CNY, Public Citizen, Black Lives Matter, AGREE, Unchained, and NY Immigration Coalition. We also offer low cost meeting spaces for progressive organizations. We are a fully volunteer board seeking to expand our skill base. Applications can be found on our website at syracusecenter.org.
Syracuse City Redistricting Commission – apply by 3/31
This year, our city will make history with a redistricting effort that will be one of the first in the nation to have citizen led, independent, bipartisan maps. Thus far, overwhelmingly, the applicants have been white, male, and from Districts 3 and 5.
We need a citizen led redistricting board that represents our city. We really need women, people of color, and folks from Districts 1,2, and 4 to get involved! Please share this, and if you are interested in helping to make the committee more representative of the city, please apply here, at the City Auditor’s page on the city’s website: http://www.syrgov.net/City_Auditor.aspx
You can also view a current list of applicants on that site. More info:
General Ordinance No. 3-2021: Independent Redistricting Commission
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2021/01/syracuse-lawmakers-unanimously-adopt-independent-redistricting-plan.htmlWh0 is eligible? “regular voters who have lived in the city at least five years. People with ties to city government, like major political donors, city employees or elected officials, cannot serve.”
Immigration Reform should be a vehicle for human rights, not a cover for labor exploitation. Please join Farm Workers to oppose the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would create a long, complicated path to permanent status, expand the exploitation of immigrant labor, impose a mandatory e-verify system and require background checks that could exclude workers from eligibility for the smallest of crimes. We want a just immigration reform, legislation that continues to criminalize and exploit immigrants is not reform…it’s just more of the same. #FarmworkersDeserveBetter. Sign and share the petition.
Bi-Weekly General Meeting of Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network
TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2021 AT 5:30 PM EDT – 7:30 PM EDT
Join SIRDN for our next bi-weekly general meeting! We will be providing updates on our campaigns and the activities of our working groups, including solidarity fundraising, ongoing legislative advocacy campaigns, and other efforts to support the work of the Workers Center of Central New York. New members are always welcome. Meetings conducted in English and Spanish w/ interpretation.
For Zoom information, please send us a Facebook message or email us at sirdn315@gmail.com.
“Cafecito Hour” Virtual Phone Bank
Wednesday, March 24, 12-2 PM sign up here
We will be targeting our CNY Congress members and WE NEED YOUR HELP! Our IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES NEED YOUR HELP!
12pm start time w/intro (why and what)
12:10pm Simulate call
12.20pm Open Q and A
12.30pm Everyone make a call!
12.45pm feedback/check-in
1.00pm photo op/closing first hour activity
1:05 to 2pm “drop-in hour” w/ music in background
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88567404497
We will be asking them to protect immigrant communities by including permanent protection and a path to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and those essential workers in the next budget reconciliation package.
We are so grateful to all of your engagement on our statewide campaigns and we have seen what advocacy work can do with so much recent positive news!
Indivisible-RISE & Common Cause: For the People Phonebank
Wednesdays, 2pm EST
We’ll be calling voters in targeted districts and connecting them to their Senators to support the For the People Act (S1).
People’s Agenda for Policing: Community Forums.
Thursday, March 25 from 6-7:30 Register here.
The Syracuse Police Accountability and Reform Coalition (SPAARC) has organized three public forums – this is the final one,on Revisioning Policing in Syracuse. The conversation comes as public scrutiny of police officers and state-sanctioned violence is growing nationwide due to more extensive police reform and calls for accountability. Forums are free and open to the community.
United We March: REBIRTHsyr
Thursday, March 25 at 5:30 pm EDT
City Hall, Syracuse, NY 13202
This day REBIRTHsyr attempts to bring a broken community together in the name of UNITY. Far too long we have been divided while living in the same community. This is unacceptable and should not be a norm in Syracuse NY or any community. Minorities are still experiencing racism, threats and even death because white supremacy and hatred fills the heart of so many Americans. We can end this in Syracuse NY! We can put a curve on these egregious behaviors and insensitive acts of cowardice hate & violence towards others. Unity is the key, and this will be a sign of Unity and a unspoken treaty between ALL Minorities and Allies. The people United can NEVER be defeated, so we must stand with each other and SUPPORT one another, we have NOTHING TO LOSE & SO MUCH TO GAIN.
Taking the “Inside Baseball” Out of Your Government: City of Syracuse
Thursday, March 25th – 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Join us for this enlightening conversation when together we’ll learn about the structure and mechanisms of our City of Syracuse government, where and how to obtain responses and resources to YOUR questions and needs, and how YOU can petition or advocate for your concerns and issues with our government. This forum will help de-mystify local government and the specific roles and responsibilities of the offices, office holders, administrators, and staff who provide services to the Syracuse community. https://www.onbar.org/events/taking-the-inside-baseball-out-of-your-government-city-of-syracuse/
Black Revolutionary Thought for Our Times?
Thursday, Mar. 25 at 7 PM EDT Link to Event
Event by Shelter & Solidarity: A Deep Dive with Artists and Activists
Throughout modern history, struggles against oppression affecting African Americans have generated powerful and persuasive radical voices, often resonating across lines of race and nation. How do black revolutionary thinkers of the past—from black Marxist like Richard Wright, to Black Panther participants like Fred Hampton only Assata Shakur, to contemporary voices like Mumia Abu Jamal and others— help us to grasp the present and shape our collective future?
Sacred Waters – Trauma of the Erie Canal
Saturday, March 27, 2021 at 11 am
Info/Registration: Sacred Waters – Trauma of the Erie Canal
Event by Erie Canal Museum, American Indian Law Alliance and 2 others
Join Jake Haiwhagai’i Edwards and Dr. Philip P. Arnold for a free webinar about about the impact of the Erie Canal on the Haudenosaunee.
For millennia, waterways in Haudenosaunee territories have been profoundly important. In the Haudenosaunee cosmology, water is sacred as fundamental to all life. Therefore, while waterways were used for transportation, as food resources, and as locations for settlement, it was widely agreed among Indigenous peoples that they also be protected. The Erie Canal disrupted the natural flow of water, essentially damming watersheds so as to flow in an east-west direction. As Laurence Hauptman has discussed in Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State, the creation of the Erie Canal corresponded with the dispossession of the Haudenosaunee. Transformation of the landscape throughout the 19th century had profound environmental effects and traumatic consequences on Haudenosaunee relationships to their lands.
This event is a free Zoom webinar with a recommended donation of $10 to help support the museums’ missions. You can register for the webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_CJIQow82S4-Kzz8YAkz4mg
To make a donation please visit this link:https://eriecanalmuseum.org/…/sacred-waters-trauma…/
War and Global Warming: We Can’t Save the Planet Without Taking on the Pentagon
Monday, April 5 from 7-8:30 pm
Zoom presentation and conversation with environmentalist/peace activist Pat Hynes
Register here. Share the Facebook event. The talk will also be livestreamed on Facebook.
Sponsored by the Beyond War and Militarism Committee of SPC and the CNY Solidarity Coalition
Pat Hynes is the director of the Traprock Center for Peace & Justice, a retired environmental engineer, and professor of environmental health. Pat speaks passionately about the intricate connections between militarism and climate change, and the apocalyptic role the Pentagon is taking in climate crises worldwide. Please join us in discussing important topic that is sometimes left out of climate conversations and activism.
Climate change is inevitably an issue of peace because oil is indispensable for war and militarism, the lifeblood coursing through our foreign policy veins. Since U.S. policy is based on maintaining superpower status through force, access to oil is a paramount goal to the U.S. Department of Defense. Ironically, militarism as the means to more oil is also the most oil-intensive activity on the planet, with the Pentagon being the single-largest contributor of climate change emissions in the world.
In 2016, as in previous years, an estimated $1 trillion was allocated to military defense, militarized national security, veterans, and debt from recent wars – while in that same year, only a few billion dollars were allocated to research and development for energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies (that’s a little over one one-thousandth as much).
DEADLOCKED AND LOADED: Disarming America Curated by Karen M. Gutfreund
February 11 to April 18, 2021
ArtRage Gallery – https://artragegallery.org Make your reservation for in-person gallery viewing HERE!
The need to address gun violence is more urgent than ever and in response, artists from across the United States have used their artistic voices to address issues related to our culture of gun violence particularly how it affects women, children and marginalized peoples.
Deadlocked and Loaded: Disarming America is a “locked and loaded” conversation through art, showcasing art in all media that addresses the culture of violence, systemic racism, police brutality and gun issues in the United States—particularly in how it affects women and children with lasting impacts.
This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Community Folk Art Center and Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse. A catalog representing all 36 artists exhibiting in the three galleries can be viewed HERE.
VERY BUSY? BUT WANT TO DO YOUR PART? JOIN STREET HEAT!
EXPOSE KILLER DRONE TERROR: join our decade-long protests against the piloting of reaper drones over the Islamic oil lands…across from the main gate of Hancock AFB, 6000 East Molloy Rd (east of Mattydale)…4:15 to 5 p.m. every Tuesdayfrom April 6 thru the end of October.
STAND WITH PALESTINE expose IDF terrorism, Occupation and apartheid in Gaza and West Bank…intersection of Erie Blvd E and E Genesee in De Witt…4:15 to 5 p.m every Friday
BRING YOUR OWN PEACE AND JUSTICE SIGN*…opposite the Regional Market main entrance On Park ST.. every Saturday 9 to 9:45 a.m. beginning April 3 *or use one of ours. (Ann or Ed 315 478-4571 home)
*Social distancing***Legal***No meetings, no obligation, no cost***Easy parking***Rain or shine*
From ArtRage: SERRV international spring sale fundraiser
Since 1949 Serrv International has been fighting global poverty through fair and ethical trade. One of the first fair trade organizations in the world, SERRV International began its mission by helping displaced European refugees trade their handcrafts for income after the Second World War. Since then, they’ve extended their reach to 24 countries worldwide, working to empower over 8,000 artisans and farmers every year by selling their beautiful handcrafts.
You can support these artisans and ArtRage this spring by shopping fair trade at SERRV International!
Shop from https://www.serrv.org/?a=artrage, and we’ll earn 20% for our organization.
PLUS: Use promo code SESPRING21 for FREE SHIPPING on orders $50+ when you place your order March 3-17*.
DONATIONS NEEDED:
61 Ways to Donate in Support of Asian Communities in New York Magazine Here
“We’ve organized this list based on what each organization does, from assisting businesses impacted by COVID-19 to providing legal aid and education, so if you’d like to jump to a specific type of organization, simply click on the category.”
Save the Cayuga SHARE Farm: Support the Sovereignty of Native Nations
Our friends at NOON (Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation) forwarded this appeal, last week: From the letter: “We hope this announcement finds you well. You are invited to support an online fundraiser to save the Cayuga SHARE Farm in the interest of the traditional people of Cayuga (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ- People of the Pipe), a sovereign nation of the Haudenosaunee confederacy. It is an urgent need to ensure that Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ traditional leadership of chiefs and clan mothers can keep SHARE Farm, the only land which they currently have stewardship rights to within their people’s homeland. Donations made through Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming will be used to ensure the farm continues to be a place for education, healing, and Haudenosaunee culture….” Continue reading. See also the website, the GoFundMe page or the Facebook page.
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Peter McCarthy
pmccar1100@gmail.com